Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 25

Article IV., Section 3, of the Const.i.tution of the United States expressly grants to Congress exclusive power to prescribe laws for the Territories of the United States.

Just as each State has a separate judicial system so the Federal Government has its separate courts, which have no power to interfere with the proceedings or judgments of the State courts unless some principle of the Federal Const.i.tution or a national law is challenged.

ESSENTIALS TO MARRIAGE.--There are three requisites to a lawful marriage in all of the States and Territories of the United States. These are:

1. First, that the marriage is _monogamous_. That is, the Federal courts and the courts of the several States only recognize as a true marriage one which in addition to being valid in other respects is a voluntary union of one man and one woman for life to the exclusion of all others.

2. The parties must be competent according to the _lex loci contractus_, or the law where the contract was concluded.

3. There must be free consent on the part of both of the contracting parties.

INTERSTATE COMITY.--As Wharton points out in his "Conflict of Laws,"

marriage is not merely a contract but an international inst.i.tution of Christendom.

Often complications arise out of some difference between the law of marriage and divorce in the State where a marriage is concluded, or a divorce effected, and the law of the State where one or both of the parties may after the marriage or divorce acquire a domicile. The guiding rule in such cases is that if a marriage or divorce is valid in the State or Territory where it was concluded or effected, it is valid in all of the States and Territories of the United States.

PROOF OF MARRIAGE.--There are various methods of proving the existence of a marriage.

Where the parties live together ostensibly as husband and wife, demeaning themselves toward each other as such, and are received into society and treated by their friends and relations as having and being ent.i.tled to that status, the law will, in favour of morality and decency, presume that they have been legally married. This is the rule accepted with but slight qualifications in all of the States. The cohabitation of the parties coupled with the general reputation of being husband and wife is, however, at the best _prima facie_ evidence sufficient for the purposes of a civil suit. In criminal prosecutions for adultery or bigamy, marriage is a necessary ingredient of the offence, and must be directly established.

PROOF OF MARRIAGES ABROAD.--In the absence of special statutes requiring a marriage abroad, or in another State to be proven in a particular manner, a foreign marriage can only be established by authenticated copies of the original records, or by proving as a matter of fact what the legal requirements for marriage are in the other country or State, together with proof that such requirements have been complied with. Of course, it is always necessary to identify the parties to any record.

CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY.--By an Act of Congress applicable to all the Territories marriage within and not including the fourth degree of consanguinity computed according to the civil law is forbidden. This is with but slight variation the rule adopted by each of the States.

SOURCES OF LAW.--The laws of marriage in the several States and Territories originate from the law on that subject as it existed in England at the time of the adoption of the Federal Const.i.tution, as subsequently modified by State legislation and local judicial interpretation.

The law of divorce as it exists in the several States is entirely of local creation.

In the remainder of this chapter each State and Territory of the United States and the District of Columbia is considered separately.

ALABAMA.

MARRIAGE.--The marriageable age for males begins at 17 years and for females at 14 years of age.

Males under twenty-one years and females under eighteen years require the consent of their parents to lawfully conclude marriage.

The essence of marriage which is considered as a civil contract is the free consent of both parties.

IMPEDIMENTS.--The son must not marry his mother or stepmother, or the sister of his father or mother, or the widow of his uncle. The brother must not marry his sister or half-sister, or the daughter of his brother or half-brother, or of his sister or half-sister. The father must not marry his daughter or granddaughter, or the widow of his son. No man shall marry the daughter of his wife, or the daughter of the son or daughter of his wife; and all such marriages are declared incestuous.

FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES.--Bigamous marriages; incestuous marriages; miscegenation--between blacks and whites; and marriage of a female compelled by menace, force or duress. Such marriages involve a criminal prosecution.

CELEBRATION.--A marriage may be concluded before any regular minister of religion, any judge of a court of record, or a justice of the peace.

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE:

1. Impotency.

2. Adultery.

3. Voluntary abandonment from bed and board for two years.

4. Imprisonment in the penitentiary for two years, the sentence being for seven years or longer.

5. The commission of the crime against nature.

6. Habitual drunkenness.

7. In favour of the husband, when the wife was pregnant at the time of marriage without his knowledge or agency.

8. In favour of the wife, when the husband has committed actual violence on her person attended with danger to life or health, or when from his conduct there is reasonable apprehension of such violence.

LIMITED DIVORCES.--Decrees of separation from bed and board are granted to either spouse on the ground of cruelty.

REMARRIAGE.--On February 13, 1903, an act was approved making it unlawful for either party to marry again after a decree of divorce has been granted, until after the expiration of the time allowed for taking an appeal (sixty days from the date of the decree), as well as during the pendency of an appeal, if one is taken.

ALASKA.

In the Territory of Alaska marriage is deemed a civil contract.

Marriages may be solemnized before a qualified clergyman, judge or magistrate.

Marriage is forbidden between persons who are related to each other within, but not including, the fourth degree of consanguinity. These degrees are computed according to the rules of the Roman Law.

DIVORCE.--The following are legal causes for an absolute divorce: Impotency existing at the time of marriage and continuing to the commencement of the suit; adultery; conviction of felony; wilful desertion continued for the period of two years, or more; cruel and inhuman treatment calculated to impair health or endanger life; and gross and habitual drunkenness.

ARIZONA.

MARRIAGE.--In this newly admitted State marriage is treated as a purely civil contract.

A male must be at least eighteen and a female at least fourteen years of age to lawfully contract marriage.

The consent of the parents is required in the case of males under 21 and females under 18.

CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY.--All marriages between parents and children, including grandparents and grandchildren of every degree; between brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood; between uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews; and between first cousins are declared to be incestuous and void.

The preceding paragraph extends to illegitimate as well as legitimate children and relations.

NEGROES, MONGOLIANS AND INDIANS.--Marriage between whites and negroes, between whites and Mongolians, or between whites and Indians are absolutely void.

PRELIMINARIES.--A marriage license is required.

CELEBRATION.--Marriage may be concluded before any minister of the Gospel, judge of a court of record, or justice of the peace.

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE: